On 17 Jan 2005 19:09:21 -0800, "mystro" wrote:

I'm a new first time cat owner who adopted a nice 1 year old male who
for the most part is very happy and contented but certainly likes to
push the limits. Not knowing better,I allowed the cat to roam mostly
wherever it wanted when it first came home but now he
wants to get in the way in the kitchen and that includes grabbing meat
or fish that is defrosting on the counter..I lost my temper last-night
when he grabbed some hamburger while I was out of the room..I ended up
slapping him and putting him in his carrier then putting him outside
for an hour..it was cold and I couldn't leave him any longer and I'm
not sure that will do any good anyway. I've tried putting sticky tape
down,spraying him and yelling NO when I catch him but to no
avail..somewhere I read I need to train ME..any suggestions.

First - be kind to your cat and he'll love you, be mean, and he'll fear you.
Long lasting stuff like you did will just make him miserable, and he'll have no
idea why you're treating him so badly.

Hitting cats isn't great either. If a cat really annoys me I just chase it
shouting at t he top of my voice - makes me feel better, and does them no harm.

What you need is a short sharp unpleasant response exactly when the cat (or any
animal really) is doing the thing you don't want it to do - waiting even 10
seconds makes punishment futile. I blow really hard on my cats - right in their
faces, they hate it, and there is a poster here who rattles a tin of marbles? at
his. Very soon just hinting that you'll do something like that will make the cat
stop.

But, you've got to know cats are much cleverer than dogs :-) - and so if you
aren't there, they'll still apply their rules, not yours, if you leave food out
with cats about, you're right - you need a bit of training.

Our cats don't go on the work surfaces (like only 1% of the time ;-) because
there's never any food on them.

Jim
(just a cat co-habitee)